Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / SHOCK: 11 year-old drives car 24 hours to live with man he meets on Snapchat

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SHOCK: 11 year-old drives car 24 hours to live with man he meets on Snapchat · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Charles to police say, any
0:10
Speaker 1: eleven year old boy drove three hours by himself to
0:15
Speaker 1: try to meet up with a man he had met
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Speaker 1: on snapshot. Here in Charleston, police found the boy after
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Speaker 1: midnight Monday, driving along Rutledge Avenue. When officers stopped him,
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Speaker 1: he told them he had driven all the way from
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Speaker 1: Simpsonville in the Upstate and was lost. He then told
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Speaker 1: police he took his brother's car and drove here to
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Speaker 1: Charleston to live with an unknown man he had met
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Speaker 1: on snapchat. Police were able to contact the boy's father,
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Speaker 1: who was in the process, he says, of reporting his
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Speaker 1: son missing from Simpsonville. The father then drove down here
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Speaker 1: to Charleston to pick up the boy. Police have launched
0:55
Speaker 1: an investigation into the unknown man, who police think may
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Speaker 1: have lured the eleven year old boy here. What an
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Speaker 1: eleven year old little boy. My children are about to
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Speaker 1: turn twelve. They could no more drive a car than
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Speaker 1: the man in the moon. Although we have practiced in
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Speaker 1: a field by the church in Macon, I will confess
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Speaker 1: to that, but that's private property. So nobody tried to
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Speaker 1: arrest me driving hours on end based on a Google
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Speaker 1: Map search or ways at night. And the worst part,
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Speaker 1: I don't know what the worst part is to meet
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Speaker 1: a man he met on snap Chat and go live
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Speaker 1: with him. I don't even know what to say. For once,
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Speaker 1: for once, I'm speechless. What in the hey was he
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Speaker 1: reported missing? Did anybody notice the car and the little
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Speaker 1: boy were gone? Out of all those hours, nobody noticed
2:01
Speaker 1: there's an eleven year old on the road. I'm Nancy Grace.
2:06
Speaker 1: This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
2:09
Speaker 1: You were just hearing our friend at WCSC. That was
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Speaker 1: Bill's sharp describing what happened. If you go to crime
2:15
Speaker 1: online dot com you can see the video. And I'm
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Speaker 1: looking at it right now. An eleven year old little
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Speaker 1: boy all sunk down in the seat, you can barely
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Speaker 1: see over the steering wheel, driving on the highway. Three
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Speaker 1: hours to go live with a man he meets on
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Speaker 1: snap Chat. Okay, before I get any facts, let me
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Speaker 1: just tell you who's joining us. Mark Tate, renowned Savannah
2:42
Speaker 1: trial lawyer, and also with me victim, child victim turned
2:48
Speaker 1: survivor Alicia Kozakevich, now stride an activist, doctor Bethany Marshall
2:57
Speaker 1: joining me from the heart of psycho analysis. And I'm
3:00
Speaker 1: not talking about Prague. I'm talking about Rodeo drive Boy.
3:04
Speaker 1: Do they need to shrink? And so do we also
3:07
Speaker 1: with me, former federal prosecutor, first ever national coordinator for
3:11
Speaker 1: Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction. That's a mouthful. Francy Higgs
3:16
Speaker 1: is with me and forensics expert, the founder of Bare
3:20
Speaker 1: Bones Consulting, Karen Smith. Right now to Anne Emerson, our
3:25
Speaker 1: friend at ABC News for in Charleston, an nobody noticed
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Speaker 1: a boy was driving three straight hours on the highway, Nancy,
3:34
Speaker 1: this story just blew me away. When we saw the
3:37
Speaker 1: press release for the first time come across our desks,
3:41
Speaker 1: we just I couldn't close my mouth for a while.
3:44
Speaker 1: It is the worst case scenario for so many reasons.
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Speaker 1: What we did learn, though, was that this child had
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Speaker 1: been reported missing twenty four hours earlier on Sunday morning.
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Speaker 1: Of course, I've asked Simpsonville Police Department like three times,
4:01
Speaker 1: are you sure we have our days correct? Here? Sunday
4:06
Speaker 1: or Sunday morning, early morning? He was missing. Twenty four
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Speaker 1: hours later he shows up in Charleston. I don't understand it.
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Speaker 1: Did nobody issue an amber alert? Exactly? Do you see.
4:16
Speaker 1: That was my question I wanted to ask you don't
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Speaker 1: don't tell Mark Klass about that. You know how he
4:22
Speaker 1: is about issuing Amber Alert. Oh, dear Lord in Heaven.
4:26
Speaker 1: For those of you just joining us, take a listen
4:29
Speaker 1: to our friend. This is ABC News reporter Ann Emerson.
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Speaker 1: This is the intersection in downtown Charleston. Or An eleven
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Speaker 1: year old driver ended his three hour trip from his
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Speaker 1: home in Simpsonville, South Carolina, all the way down here
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Speaker 1: to Charleston to meet a man he says he met
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Speaker 1: on snapshot. Joining me in addition to Anne Emerson from
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Speaker 1: ABC News for Charleston, my longtime friend, A woman I
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Speaker 1: wish you could get to know as I have, Alicia Kozakevich.
5:00
Speaker 1: Alicia met as a child, you know, an insecure girl
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Speaker 1: at school. I guess everybody's insecure in middle school, in
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Speaker 1: high school. Looking back, I guess I was too. Every
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Speaker 1: just nobody feels like they fit in. She met a
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Speaker 1: friend online and her parents did everything right. It was
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Speaker 1: a little girl, But then after a period of time,
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Speaker 1: the little girl admitted he was a little boy, but
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Speaker 1: they were already friends. It was only later when she
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Speaker 1: stepped out of her home to meet her friend, she
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Speaker 1: was pulled into a car and kidnapped. Alicia Kozakevich tell me,
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Speaker 1: the name of your website is Alicia Kovac dot com,
5:40
Speaker 1: so the shorter version of my name Kovak, and it
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Speaker 1: is incredible. Guys, take a listen to our friend. Sarah
5:49
Speaker 1: Dannett at News three. At thirteen year old Alicia Kozakevich
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Speaker 1: started to spend more time at her family's computer. The
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Speaker 1: Internet was becoming more mainstream and were logging on. She
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Speaker 1: created a screen name and started getting introduced to other
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Speaker 1: people through friends. What Alicia didn't know was exactly who
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Speaker 1: she was talking to. I thought it was somebody around
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Speaker 1: my own age, and I didn't think anything else. Now
6:19
Speaker 1: people go, how could you not know? But I was
6:24
Speaker 1: a thirteen year old kid. Thirteen year old kids think
6:26
Speaker 1: they know everything. That friend turned out to be thirty
6:29
Speaker 1: eight year old Scott Tyred, a computer programmer from Virginia,
6:33
Speaker 1: and after months of grooming Alicia, he took a trip
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Speaker 1: to her home in Pennsylvania. What she does remember is
6:39
Speaker 1: slipping out into the bitter cold January night. My intuition
6:43
Speaker 1: and said, Alicia, you need to go home. This is
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Speaker 1: really dangerous. What are you doing? And I went to
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Speaker 1: turn around, and I heard my name being called, And
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Speaker 1: next thing I knew was in a car, and this
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Speaker 1: man was squeezing my hand so tightly, and he was
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Speaker 1: barking commands at me, be good, be quiet. The trunks
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Speaker 1: cleaned out for you. And then he explained to her
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Speaker 1: that he had made a very comfy place for her
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Speaker 1: in the trunk. What she may not have known is
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Speaker 1: that his screen name was Master fourteen Slave Girls. After
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Speaker 1: days and days and days of the worst type of abuse,
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Speaker 1: the time came when Alicia thought she would be killed.
7:31
Speaker 1: That evening, Alicia, I was reliving your story as I
7:38
Speaker 1: was working on my book. What do you have to
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Speaker 1: say to parents right now? This child, this little eleven
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Speaker 1: year old boy, was on Snapchat and drove three hours
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Speaker 1: to meet a man he met there to go live
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Speaker 1: with him. It's horrible. My heart goes out to the
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Speaker 1: little boy, and I'm actually really that we don't know
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Speaker 1: his name, because that means that he will be able
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Speaker 1: to move on from this more easily and get the
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Speaker 1: help that he needs. But this this young boy, this child,
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Speaker 1: this baby, he was certainly groomed by somebody. Somebody was
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Speaker 1: convincing him that he should take these incredibly dangerous, illegal
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Speaker 1: steps to drive across, to drive three hundred miles, and
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Speaker 1: to live with this person. This child was in so
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Speaker 1: much danger, and I'm so glad that he pulled over
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Speaker 1: to ask a cop for direction to the fact that
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Speaker 1: he did. That shows how innocent he is and how
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Speaker 1: he doesn't see himself as even really doing anything wrong.
8:46
Speaker 1: That he didn't have a grasp on this at all.
9:00
Speaker 1: Climb stories with Nancy Grace, So every time I tried
9:06
Speaker 1: to write this, it sounded melodramatic, so I decided to
9:09
Speaker 1: stick to the facts. When Michael Waislowski and I started corresponding,
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Speaker 1: I was fifteen years old, about to turn sixteen, and vulnerable.
9:17
Speaker 1: I was physically unable to process the gravity of our conversations,
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Speaker 1: and he manipulated me heavily, taking advantage of my mental
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Speaker 1: illness to push me closer to his desires. I backed
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Speaker 1: out twice and he berated me, pushing me to commit
9:31
Speaker 1: to him and his idea of a life for me.
9:33
Speaker 1: The second I left my home, my life was ruined.
9:36
Speaker 1: The first week why Silowski had me in his home,
9:39
Speaker 1: he did unimaginable things to me and irreparably broke my
9:42
Speaker 1: spirit and sense of self. This abuse proceeded for fifty
9:45
Speaker 1: six weeks. I developed severe OCD about a month after
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Speaker 1: why Silowski was released on bond, an escalation from a
9:53
Speaker 1: previous minor disorder. I checked locks, excessively, counted steps, tiles,
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Speaker 1: items and numbers, and class of everything and everyone I
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Speaker 1: knew into safe and unsafe classifications, hoping he would not
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Speaker 1: hurt me again. It took me over a year to
10:08
Speaker 1: partially recover from a severe eating from severe eating disordered
10:12
Speaker 1: habits directly related to his starving me and refusing the food,
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Speaker 1: which went hand in hand was my OCD. You were
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Speaker 1: hearing the heart breaking victim impact statement of a little
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Speaker 1: girl who was lured online, kidnapped and held as a
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Speaker 1: sex slave for fifty six weeks. That was Hailey Burns,
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Speaker 1: who has spoken at length. I visited a long time
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Speaker 1: with her parents. They had no idea what was going on.
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Speaker 1: To doctor Bethany Marshall joining us, you know, at first
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Speaker 1: blush when you read this story like the banner on
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Speaker 1: crime online dot Com, little boy eleven drives three hours
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Speaker 1: to live with many meet met on Snapchat, says police. Okay.
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Speaker 1: That barely scratches the surface of what went on here,
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Speaker 1: Doctor Bethany. It barely scratches the surface because when you
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Speaker 1: first read it, or are our listeners hearing the story,
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Speaker 1: we see it from an adult perspective at first, like
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Speaker 1: why would eleven year old little boy run away? Why
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Speaker 1: would he want to live with a man? But when
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Speaker 1: you think of it from the child's perspective, this is
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Speaker 1: a little boy who has placed his trust in the
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Speaker 1: adults around him. So the man who approaches him online
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Speaker 1: is going to exploit his childlike nature. And as our
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Speaker 1: guest said, groom him for a long long time. And
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Speaker 1: living with a man does not have the same adult
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Speaker 1: meanings it has for you and me. It means maybe
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Speaker 1: the man said, I'll give you lots of candy, you
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Speaker 1: can eat cake every day, We'll go to Disneyland, I'll
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Speaker 1: take you to do fun things. But underneath the surface,
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Speaker 1: this little boy bonded with this man. This little boy
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Speaker 1: leaved he could get into a car. He drove down
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Speaker 1: the freeway at great risk to himself. He imagined he
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Speaker 1: could have a whole new life, with a whole new family.
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Speaker 1: And this little boy, I think, thank god he was
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Speaker 1: not actually abducted by the man. As our guests said,
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Speaker 1: you know, he was innocent enough to approach a police
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Speaker 1: officer and admit that he was lost. But just the
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Speaker 1: fact that he allowed himself to be lured is going
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Speaker 1: to be traumatizing in and of itself. He's going to
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Speaker 1: need a lot of help to recover from this poor
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Speaker 1: little guy. As Alicia, because of Kevitch was telling us,
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Speaker 1: he doesn't even realize he's done anything wrong. He was
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Speaker 1: so innocent, and that really broke my heart when you
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Speaker 1: said that, Alicia, he didn't even realize when he pulled
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Speaker 1: up to a cop and asked for directions to Francy Hags,
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Speaker 1: former federal pro secutor, first ever National Coordinator for Child
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Speaker 1: Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction. Francie, what are the cold hard
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Speaker 1: facts about online luring? Nancy? This story is so distressing.
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Speaker 1: But what's really distressing is the point that you guys
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Speaker 1: have already made, you and Alicia have already made. If
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Speaker 1: you look at the bookend here, if you look at
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Speaker 1: Alicia's story of survival all the way to now to
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Speaker 1: this child determination to use snapchats to find a friend
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Speaker 1: and to drive two hundred miles to be with that person,
13:35
Speaker 1: what it says to me is we are failing. We
13:39
Speaker 1: law enforcement, we officials, we experts, We're failing. Man. You're
13:43
Speaker 1: not kidding France, So you are not kidding. I've got
13:47
Speaker 1: so many notes, I don't even have paper. Where's the
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Speaker 1: Amber alert? Nobody said that notice the car was gone
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Speaker 1: with the tag. Because I read by the hour every day,
13:59
Speaker 1: I go to bed at men and I get up
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Speaker 1: at five and start reading again about missing children. I've
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Speaker 1: never heard about this child missing. But Nancy, it's worse
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Speaker 1: than that. Of course that's a primary factor here, but
14:09
Speaker 1: it's worse than that. Why is the child on Snapchat?
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Speaker 1: Why aren't his parents monitoring his phone? I and I know, Alicia,
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Speaker 1: I've been shouting from the rooftops for years that if you,
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Speaker 1: as a parent, are not checking your child's phone, if
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Speaker 1: you don't know what your child is doing online, you
14:27
Speaker 1: are failing your children. And we, as professional teachers, educators,
14:31
Speaker 1: we have to be constantly hammering that parents need to
14:35
Speaker 1: understand what their children are doing on social media. It's
14:38
Speaker 1: part of the responsibility. You know, if your child is
14:41
Speaker 1: sneaking out in the neighborhood and smoking and drinking, most
14:44
Speaker 1: parents have sort of accounted for that. A long time ago,
14:47
Speaker 1: putting in alarm systems or making sure they know where
14:49
Speaker 1: their children are at all hours a day or night.
14:52
Speaker 1: Now you've got intruders in the home. If someone was
14:55
Speaker 1: sneaking into your child's bedroom window, you'd probably know it. Well,
14:59
Speaker 1: that's exactly what happening here. They're sneaking into your house
15:03
Speaker 1: to lure your children out. They're just doing it digitally,
15:06
Speaker 1: you know what. I feel like I've seen it all,
15:08
Speaker 1: But when I hear Francy Hakes and Alicia kozy Kevitch's talking,
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Speaker 1: I actually get scared to Karen Smith, forensics expert, founder
15:17
Speaker 1: of Beer Bones Consulting, joining me out of the Florida jurisdiction. Karen,
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Speaker 1: this's gonna be a tough case to prove, but can
15:26
Speaker 1: it be proven digitally? Hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, let
15:30
Speaker 1: me ask you this. Let's just start with snapchat, because
15:33
Speaker 1: you know, I get in front of the twins and
15:35
Speaker 1: go give me your phone, and if they argue with me,
15:38
Speaker 1: then I tell them to their face there must be
15:40
Speaker 1: something wrong if you don't want Mommy to look at
15:42
Speaker 1: your phone. And usually they don't want me to look
15:46
Speaker 1: because they're in the middle of making a TikTok. You
15:48
Speaker 1: know what a TikTok is. That's where you wait. It's
15:51
Speaker 1: Karen Smith. You don't know what a TikTok is, Well,
15:54
Speaker 1: let me teach you. It's you'll learn soon enough when
15:58
Speaker 1: you join my joy and have twins. Listen, It's like
16:02
Speaker 1: when you go and you Francy. It's when children can
16:06
Speaker 1: go on to TikTok app and they make their own
16:09
Speaker 1: video and they last like tend to twenty seconds, and
16:15
Speaker 1: they can do effects, and you know, they work on them.
16:19
Speaker 1: They create little videos and they can put them online
16:22
Speaker 1: and other people can. You can look at other people's
16:25
Speaker 1: if you know their name and their handle. But long
16:30
Speaker 1: what I don't get, Francy. If Karen does not know
16:32
Speaker 1: about TikTok, I'm gonna go to you, Francy on this one.
16:35
Speaker 1: How do you check somebody's Snapchat? Well, you know, Nancy,
16:39
Speaker 1: that's a great question. There are apps out there and
16:42
Speaker 1: all you have to do is look them up. Their
16:44
Speaker 1: apps out there that allow you to monitor Snapchat. You can.
16:47
Speaker 1: It's one of the things I talk to kids about
16:49
Speaker 1: all the time. They use Snapchat because they think that
16:52
Speaker 1: these images that they're sharing or the messages disappear, but
16:56
Speaker 1: they don't. They're always present on the Snapchat servers, and
17:00
Speaker 1: there is software you can put on your phone to capture, hold,
17:04
Speaker 1: and preserve whatever someone else is sending you on Snapchat.
17:08
Speaker 1: So as a parent, you can do the same thing.
17:10
Speaker 1: And like I said earlier, you're crazy if you're not
17:13
Speaker 1: up to date on TikTok or any other app that
17:16
Speaker 1: your child is using. And parents are just you know,
17:19
Speaker 1: I think we're behind. We get old Nancy, and we're
17:22
Speaker 1: not paying attention anymore. We don't understand the apps, we
17:25
Speaker 1: don't know what they're doing. And there's constantly a new
17:28
Speaker 1: app that all the kids know about that they don't
17:31
Speaker 1: want the adults to know about. You know, I hate
17:33
Speaker 1: to say this broadcast, but Facebook, for example, once all
17:37
Speaker 1: of us parents and adults got on Facebook, the kids
17:40
Speaker 1: jumped off. Now they use the other things like TikTok Alicia. Yeah, So,
17:46
Speaker 1: speaking to that point about monitoring your children parents, often
17:50
Speaker 1: I get feedback from parents from times that they're saying, oh,
17:53
Speaker 1: that's an invasion of privacy. And I get that. I
17:56
Speaker 1: get that you may discover things about your children that
18:00
Speaker 1: you may not necessarily want to know, but that it
18:04
Speaker 1: is so critically important that you do monitor their online
18:08
Speaker 1: activity on their mobile devices and their video games. And
18:13
Speaker 1: it may seem like an invasion of privacy, but you
18:17
Speaker 1: have to do it to keep your child faith and
18:21
Speaker 1: it's not to catch them in something. So if you
18:23
Speaker 1: found out that your child went to a party and
18:26
Speaker 1: they weren't supposed to, or they try to cigarette or
18:28
Speaker 1: whatever things that kids do, it's not about catching them
18:32
Speaker 1: in those things and punishing them for those things. It's
18:35
Speaker 1: about finding out when things go really wrong, if your
18:38
Speaker 1: child is being cyberbullied, if they're being groomed, that they're
18:40
Speaker 1: being sexually exploited, that you can be ahead of it,
18:44
Speaker 1: or that if something does go truly wrong, you have
18:47
Speaker 1: a blueprint of what happened and possibly a roadmap to
18:50
Speaker 1: where they are. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Good news
19:08
Speaker 1: to night that boy is back safe with his family.
19:11
Speaker 1: This is very much a joint operation here Simpsonville Police
19:14
Speaker 1: and Charleston Police with a central question tonight, who was
19:17
Speaker 1: that boy talking to You are looking here at exclusive video.
19:21
Speaker 1: This is where a Charleston police officer talking with that
19:24
Speaker 1: boy had happened around twelve thirty this morning. The boy
19:27
Speaker 1: was alone and told the officer he was lost. He
19:30
Speaker 1: said he was on his way to live with a
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Speaker 1: man he met through Snapchat. He plugged the address in
19:35
Speaker 1: on a tablet, but lost the GPS signal somewhere along
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Speaker 1: the way. Police Night are describing the man as unknown.
19:41
Speaker 1: You have somebody who's chatting with an eleven year old
19:43
Speaker 1: about traveling, so we're very cautious about wanting to make
19:48
Speaker 1: sure children are safe on the internet. The investigator tells
19:51
Speaker 1: us he's been in touch with the boy's family. He says,
19:53
Speaker 1: at this point they do seem to be in good spirits.
19:55
Speaker 1: He didn't want to speculate on any potential charges for
19:59
Speaker 1: the person at the other end of that snapchat. Well,
20:01
Speaker 1: I want to you're just hearing from our friend at WYFF.
20:06
Speaker 1: That was Taggart. How an eleven year old little boy
20:10
Speaker 1: driving three hours to quote live with the man he
20:14
Speaker 1: meets on Snapchat. This little boy all alone, three hours
20:19
Speaker 1: away from home in his attempt to live with a
20:22
Speaker 1: guy he meets on Lime now randomly and you can
20:26
Speaker 1: see the video at crime online dot com. You see
20:31
Speaker 1: the car looks like nobody's driving it. It's a ghost car.
20:35
Speaker 1: The little boy pulls randomly into a restaurant parking lot,
20:39
Speaker 1: and there happens to be And I completely believe this
20:43
Speaker 1: was divine intervention from Heaven at that park and that
20:46
Speaker 1: parking lot was a cop car Charleston officer Christopher Braun.
20:51
Speaker 1: It was about one thirty in the morning. Braun, sitting
20:56
Speaker 1: in his police cruiser, noticed just a little boy behind
21:01
Speaker 1: the wheel in the vehicle. The little boy tells the
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Speaker 1: cop he got lost on his way to go live
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Speaker 1: with a stranger who befriended him on Snapchat. This child
21:12
Speaker 1: lived over two hundred miles away from where he was found.
21:19
Speaker 1: He told Braun he took his brother's car and drove
21:23
Speaker 1: to Charleston to live with an unknown mail. And that's
21:27
Speaker 1: according to a police spokesperson. Now, his dad's Insignia tablet
21:35
Speaker 1: lost the GPS signal that was directing him to the
21:38
Speaker 1: address of the unknown man. So they've got to know
21:41
Speaker 1: who the unknown man is because the address is on
21:44
Speaker 1: the tablet, and that little boy didn't divine that from
21:48
Speaker 1: his crazy eight ball. He had to be told that address.
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Speaker 1: He loses the GPS signal. Can you imagine out on
21:56
Speaker 1: the road he's been gone. Now, I forgot how long,
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Speaker 1: how many hours? Anne Emerson, ABC News for Charleston. Had
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Speaker 1: this child been on the road when he lost the signal,
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Speaker 1: and you know, we're being told that he could have
22:08
Speaker 1: been on the road for twenty four hours. We don't
22:10
Speaker 1: know how long he just kept on driving, but you
22:12
Speaker 1: know he was on however much gas he had in
22:14
Speaker 1: the car, Nancy. But you know, the kudos to the
22:19
Speaker 1: officer for being able to keep that that whole situation
22:22
Speaker 1: under control as this child without sort of freaking out
22:26
Speaker 1: and being like, there's an eleven year old driving the car.
22:29
Speaker 1: He obviously was a child, but he treated him with
22:32
Speaker 1: so much respect. You can see it in the video
22:35
Speaker 1: how he gets out, who shakes hands with the little boy.
22:39
Speaker 1: I guess they're having sort of an introduction and have
22:42
Speaker 1: a minute to talk and and and I arguably the
22:47
Speaker 1: chief even says the police she told me right after
22:50
Speaker 1: this happened, they really got in front of this because
22:52
Speaker 1: they really wanted parents to have an opportunity to talk
22:57
Speaker 1: to their children about this scenario. But arguably this officer
23:02
Speaker 1: saved this child's life. And it really it really speaks
23:07
Speaker 1: to what we need to This is an unbelievable opportunity
23:13
Speaker 1: to uh that came out with the best possible scenario,
23:16
Speaker 1: after what this child had already done, had already been
23:19
Speaker 1: on the road, all of the risks that had already
23:21
Speaker 1: happened to h to learn something right now. Well, I
23:25
Speaker 1: don't understand Ann Emerson, ABC needs for Charleston, because what
23:29
Speaker 1: I'm understanding is that the father was quote in the
23:32
Speaker 1: process of reporting him missing. I know that had he
23:36
Speaker 1: not been reported missing, he According to this fact, this
23:39
Speaker 1: child had been reported missing at one twenty on Sunday morning,
23:43
Speaker 1: um one, almost twenty four hours later, that is when
23:48
Speaker 1: the Charleston Police reported this child had been found. So
23:54
Speaker 1: there seems to be a wait, wait, wait, hold on,
23:58
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm drinking from the fire. Hydro and
24:00
Speaker 1: Anderson with me with all the facts from ABC News
24:03
Speaker 1: for Charleston. Karen Smith, forensics expert Beerboat's consulting. If he
24:06
Speaker 1: had his dad's tablet, can't you do find my iPad
24:10
Speaker 1: or find my tablet? Absolutely? Yeah. If there's an app
24:13
Speaker 1: on your phone, like we have Find my Phone on
24:15
Speaker 1: most people have iPhones now find my phone, Yes, you
24:18
Speaker 1: can trace that. There's also a thing on Snapchat called
24:22
Speaker 1: snap maps. Nancy. I did not know this, but it's
24:26
Speaker 1: a way that people can trace you in real time.
24:30
Speaker 1: So if he had Snapchat on that tablet, I'm not
24:33
Speaker 1: sure how the police would go in and find that
24:35
Speaker 1: metadata inside that tablet, but they can trace where that
24:39
Speaker 1: child went and hopefully also find the address of this
24:43
Speaker 1: predator that was finding this little boy and luring him
24:46
Speaker 1: to his house. If Rancy Haiggs, former federal prosecutor, isn't
24:50
Speaker 1: it true? Well, well, I'm not sure. With Snapchat. Can
24:53
Speaker 1: you pull up the dialogue what they were saying to
24:56
Speaker 1: each other or am I going to have to rely
24:58
Speaker 1: on what the little boy can remember? Nancy. That's a
25:01
Speaker 1: great point, and I really sincerely hope the FBI is
25:04
Speaker 1: involved here because they can certainly serve process on Snapchat
25:08
Speaker 1: get that information from the Snapchat servers. It's a dirty
25:12
Speaker 1: little secret that kids don't know, is that that material
25:16
Speaker 1: is stored on the Snapchat servers. And also importantly here, Nancy,
25:20
Speaker 1: if the FBI gets involved and we have a federal
25:23
Speaker 1: prosecution of this man, you're looking at very serious jail
25:27
Speaker 1: time for luring a child like this over the internet.
25:30
Speaker 1: He faces a possible penalty of a ten year mandatory
25:34
Speaker 1: minimum federal prison sentence. So I sincerely hope the FBI
25:38
Speaker 1: is involved already joining me right now, veteran trial lawyer
25:42
Speaker 1: out of the Savannah jurisdiction. You know his name very
25:45
Speaker 1: well if you are in the trial world, Mark Tate
25:49
Speaker 1: joining me, Mark Tate, no offense. But how do you
25:51
Speaker 1: do it? I mean, how would you defend a case
25:55
Speaker 1: like this? Well, I think it's in terms of luring
25:58
Speaker 1: a minor for a purpose. It's indefensible. I think, however,
26:04
Speaker 1: that there might need to be a Department of Family
26:07
Speaker 1: and Human Services investigation into how this child could be
26:11
Speaker 1: so negligently supervised. The parents have a duty to their minor.
26:15
Speaker 1: Wait wait, wait, wait, wait, you're blaming the parent. You're
26:18
Speaker 1: blaming the parents. Will I have to tell you? Mark,
26:20
Speaker 1: Take as much as I want to fight with you,
26:23
Speaker 1: how do you just notice at one twenty a m
26:27
Speaker 1: your child is gone? I don't know though. Let me
26:29
Speaker 1: think this too. My husband goes into like a deep
26:32
Speaker 1: sleep state at about nine PM. I mean, he can't
26:35
Speaker 1: fall asleep sitting straight up. Of course we do get
26:38
Speaker 1: up sometimes at four thirty in the morning, but so
26:41
Speaker 1: I know he's tired. I'm awake, it's at but he
26:45
Speaker 1: goes straight to sleep. Sure, as this has been a
26:47
Speaker 1: level you know, maybe this dad did that. He gets
26:50
Speaker 1: up in the middle of the night and go to
26:51
Speaker 1: the bathroom and then he notices his son's gone. Maybe
26:54
Speaker 1: that's how it happened. So I don't know the story there,
26:59
Speaker 1: but of course, smart Tait, I knew you'd blame the parents.
27:03
Speaker 1: I don't know. What about you're a potential client, the
27:06
Speaker 1: guy that lured him on snapchat? What about him? Thank you?
27:09
Speaker 1: I think that that person would be somebody that I
27:12
Speaker 1: would rather look into allowing the criminal authorities to charging.
27:18
Speaker 1: And I would like rather than becoming involved in defending
27:22
Speaker 1: this brother on behalf of the family file a lawsuit
27:26
Speaker 1: against him for illegally luring their child, and I think
27:30
Speaker 1: he has civil liability for that as well as criminal
27:32
Speaker 1: life civil liability. My rear end, this dude's going to jail.
27:36
Speaker 1: Of course he didn't. Oh, absolutely, he is going to jail.
27:40
Speaker 1: But there are many cases, many right here in Savannah, Georgia,
27:44
Speaker 1: where the criminal justice system, while affect well being as
27:48
Speaker 1: effective as they could, failed to get jail time against people,
27:52
Speaker 1: men that I know personally because I sued them when
27:56
Speaker 1: they have raped thirteen year old girls and guys have
27:59
Speaker 1: walked with zoo Rod jail time because of the DA's
28:02
Speaker 1: fear of proving a number of things. Whereas Jackie, Jackie, Jackie,
28:08
Speaker 1: look at my arm. Jackie look at my arm when
28:12
Speaker 1: he said get off, walk free after raping a thirteen
28:16
Speaker 1: year old child. Look at the chill bumps going up
28:19
Speaker 1: my arms. No, no, what, I'm leaving the studio. I'm
28:21
Speaker 1: gonna go check on the twins right now because Mark
28:23
Speaker 1: Tate had just scared me out of my skin crime
28:37
Speaker 1: stories with Nancy Grace. Charleston Klise have now reunited an
28:42
Speaker 1: eleven year old boy from Simpsonville with his family after
28:45
Speaker 1: the boy drove two hundred miles throughout the night. Police
28:49
Speaker 1: say that the boy was going out to the coast
28:52
Speaker 1: to meet a man he met on snapchat. Around midnight,
28:56
Speaker 1: the boy pulled up alongside an officer and told him
28:58
Speaker 1: that he had just driven three hours and he was
29:01
Speaker 1: lost because his GPS signal didn't work. That's our friend
29:06
Speaker 1: at w lt X, anchored Darcy Strickland speaking and with
29:10
Speaker 1: us from ABC News for Charleston and Emerson. But first
29:13
Speaker 1: to Alicia kaza Kevic. Alicia, tell me how an innocent
29:18
Speaker 1: child you were just thirteen. My children are about to
29:22
Speaker 1: turn twelve, and our big decision is is Lucy really
29:25
Speaker 1: going to get her ears pierced. I've tried to scare
29:28
Speaker 1: her away for twelve years, talking about oozing infections in
29:32
Speaker 1: anything I could, But I think the time has come
29:35
Speaker 1: and that's our big question. Okay, and John David's big
29:40
Speaker 1: question is for his birthday, are they going to go
29:42
Speaker 1: to a trampoline house? And are they going to have pizza?
29:45
Speaker 1: Hot dogs? That's what they should be worried about, but
29:49
Speaker 1: instead you had to worry about a predator. And this child,
29:54
Speaker 1: unwittingly has been exposed to a predator. How does a
29:58
Speaker 1: child get lulled into to taking their brother's car and
30:01
Speaker 1: driving twelve hours in the dark to go live with
30:04
Speaker 1: a man on Snapchat? Children are naive and it's easy
30:08
Speaker 1: to do the child, and really the whole goal is
30:13
Speaker 1: pretending to be a child's friend, and most children have
30:19
Speaker 1: some levels insecurity. You can I had all the love
30:21
Speaker 1: in the world with my parents, and yet I still
30:24
Speaker 1: at times self alone. And at some point in time,
30:30
Speaker 1: every child is vulnerable and when it comes to making decisions,
30:34
Speaker 1: children's brains aren't developed to make those sort of decisions
30:38
Speaker 1: and they are at high risk and low impulse control
30:43
Speaker 1: and sometimes makes mistakes, but an adult should never take
30:48
Speaker 1: advantage of or exploit those mistakes. And it's so sad
30:54
Speaker 1: that yes, also, Alicia, you know, doctor Bethany Marshall, I
30:58
Speaker 1: think it's like I'm going to francied away in on
31:01
Speaker 1: this too, Francy hags Bethany. It's like putting your toe
31:06
Speaker 1: in the hot water. It's okay, and you get used
31:09
Speaker 1: to it. Suddenly you realize you're boiling. And I think predators,
31:16
Speaker 1: Laura Child, like they did when I was prosecuting. Not
31:19
Speaker 1: over the internet, but I remember one little boy loved
31:23
Speaker 1: arcades and he met this guy in an arcade and
31:26
Speaker 1: the guy would slip him a quarter. Then suddenly he
31:29
Speaker 1: was annually sodomizing him at his home for a roll
31:32
Speaker 1: of quarters. And as mom had no idea what was
31:35
Speaker 1: happening until she found a ten dollar bill in her
31:38
Speaker 1: little boy's pocket and did not know where that came from.
31:41
Speaker 1: Same thing online. It's a bit by bit, quarter by
31:44
Speaker 1: quarter than a roll of quarters. Next thing you know,
31:47
Speaker 1: you've been molested. Danthy, You're absolutely correct. First of all,
31:50
Speaker 1: children become attached. It's a part of our survival system.
31:54
Speaker 1: When they meet another person who befriends them and makes
31:58
Speaker 1: them feel special, they will attached to that person if
32:01
Speaker 1: they're psychologically healthy. Secondly, when the child begins to betray
32:06
Speaker 1: their own parents by telling secrets and the perpetrator says, oh,
32:11
Speaker 1: I'm sure you know your parents didn't understand you about
32:14
Speaker 1: this or that, the child gets drawn in and ensnared
32:18
Speaker 1: and then begins to feel guilty and blame himself or herself.
32:23
Speaker 1: The child places a certain amount of authority on the perpetrator.
32:28
Speaker 1: The child is lulled into a sense that this perpetrator
32:32
Speaker 1: is going to be okay and is going to be
32:35
Speaker 1: on their side. I think what parents need to have
32:39
Speaker 1: is an imaginative capacity to understand what can happen online.
32:44
Speaker 1: If you were sitting in a park watching your child
32:47
Speaker 1: play on the playground, some stranger came up and started
32:50
Speaker 1: to befriending them, someone with an inappropriate age gap started
32:55
Speaker 1: to become authoritative over your child, you would walk up
33:00
Speaker 1: and intervene right away. Well, let me just say, doctor Bethany,
33:05
Speaker 1: I would have his DNA under my fingernails. There's just
33:08
Speaker 1: no doubt about that. Bethany, absolutely, absolutely so just because
33:12
Speaker 1: you can't see it does not mean it's not happening.
33:16
Speaker 1: We know that that predators congregate around schools, bus stops,
33:23
Speaker 1: at churches, they become choir directors, they become teachers. They
33:26
Speaker 1: also go online. It's just that we what Nasha is
33:31
Speaker 1: doing is she's painting a picture for all of us.
33:34
Speaker 1: Francy Haykes helped me out. I don't understand so much
33:37
Speaker 1: about this, and you're right. Snapchap servers are designed to
33:40
Speaker 1: automatically delete messages sent in one on one chat after
33:46
Speaker 1: both snapchatters have opened and left the chat. You can
33:50
Speaker 1: say the chat by pressing and holding it, but according
33:55
Speaker 1: to you, it's also kept on the server. It's never
33:59
Speaker 1: really deleted. But Francy, how did nobody notice him driving
34:07
Speaker 1: twelve hours? He's eleven years old? And Nancy, that's a
34:10
Speaker 1: great question, and it's hard to understand. It's always hard
34:13
Speaker 1: to understand when looking back at these crimes, how they
34:16
Speaker 1: took place. Why did the child feel the need to
34:20
Speaker 1: leave his home in the middle of the night. Why
34:21
Speaker 1: is he so desperate or so hopeful that he steals
34:25
Speaker 1: his family car at eleven when he certainly knows he's
34:29
Speaker 1: not old? Enough or able to drive and drive two
34:32
Speaker 1: hundred miles to meet this man. And you have to
34:35
Speaker 1: assume that Alicia is correct. And I'm sure in the
34:38
Speaker 1: days and weeks ahead will learn more. But this predator
34:41
Speaker 1: was diabolically clever. As many of these people are those
34:45
Speaker 1: who have a sexual interest in children. They have a
34:49
Speaker 1: preferential sexual interest in children. They think and fantasize about
34:54
Speaker 1: how they're going to get access to and they're adults.
34:58
Speaker 1: They're smart, they're clever, and they're motivated, and so they
35:03
Speaker 1: know exactly what to do or say. They study children.
35:06
Speaker 1: They spend time in the same place as children spend
35:10
Speaker 1: time in playing games that they play, learning the interests
35:13
Speaker 1: of children in their age of sexual interest, and so
35:17
Speaker 1: they know exactly what to say to lure an eleven
35:20
Speaker 1: year old out of his house. This person was so clever,
35:24
Speaker 1: which in my mind makes him infinitely more dangerous than
35:29
Speaker 1: the idiot who might stand around on the playground and
35:32
Speaker 1: be spotted by a parent. This guy is so much
35:35
Speaker 1: more dangerous because of his heightened cleverness and his ability
35:40
Speaker 1: to lure a child like this. It is frightening. Parents
35:44
Speaker 1: should be scared, and I hope they're all having conversations
35:48
Speaker 1: with their kids today. Well, I've got a question. Mark Tate,
35:54
Speaker 1: veteran trial lawyer out of the Savannah jurisdiction. I think
35:58
Speaker 1: what's going to happen is the defense lawyer is not
36:03
Speaker 1: going to say anything until they see what the state's
36:06
Speaker 1: evidence is. Because if they commit to a defense like
36:10
Speaker 1: he's never met this kid who knows anything, and then
36:12
Speaker 1: it shows his computer they're having conversations, I mean a
36:17
Speaker 1: conversation may not be enough to convict him. It may
36:20
Speaker 1: not be You're exactly right, and you know, while this
36:24
Speaker 1: scares criminal defendants or even people under investigation, I always
36:30
Speaker 1: tell my clients that you don't need to talk to
36:35
Speaker 1: the police, and you have a right against self incrimination
36:40
Speaker 1: and you should exercise that right. And yeah, the police
36:44
Speaker 1: are probably going to go ahead and arrest you when
36:46
Speaker 1: you do that, because they already know the answers or
36:48
Speaker 1: believe they do to the questions you're trying to ask you.
36:50
Speaker 1: But you're just going to have to kind of listen
36:53
Speaker 1: to the advice and do not talk to the police.
36:56
Speaker 1: And just because you don't commence talking to them when
36:58
Speaker 1: they want you to, does not mean that you can't
37:01
Speaker 1: come back and decide to talk to them, And like
37:03
Speaker 1: I said, you're under no obligation to talk to the police,
37:06
Speaker 1: and a good criminal defense lawyer will tell this reprobate
37:09
Speaker 1: that and then that way you're not incriminating yourself. But
37:14
Speaker 1: there's another factor that you got to keep in mind.
37:16
Speaker 1: You don't have to talk to them, but if you
37:18
Speaker 1: make a mistake without a lawyer and do speak with them,
37:21
Speaker 1: then you cannot lie. And if you lie to them,
37:24
Speaker 1: in addition to the underlying serious crimes, you're also going
37:29
Speaker 1: to get charged with obstruction and so and they're very
37:33
Speaker 1: keen on that. And as your former federal prosecutor pointed out,
37:37
Speaker 1: you know the FBI is going to be involved in this,
37:39
Speaker 1: and they are really the elite of our on the
37:42
Speaker 1: ground federal prosecution. And they already know the answers to
37:47
Speaker 1: the questions they want you to provide answers to well,
37:49
Speaker 1: speaking of already knowing the answers to the questions, Alicia,
37:54
Speaker 1: because kevitch with me child a victim, survivor, now crusader, Alicia,
38:02
Speaker 1: when when you went out of your home after that
38:06
Speaker 1: wonderful holiday meal with your family, you go outside, you
38:11
Speaker 1: told me you had an inkling this is dangerous, and
38:15
Speaker 1: then suddenly it was too late. When did you realize,
38:19
Speaker 1: like this little boy would have realized, I'm in big
38:22
Speaker 1: trouble for me? My intuition spoke up once I was
38:27
Speaker 1: away from the technology, away from just that. In that
38:31
Speaker 1: quiet moment standing outside, I heard this little voice saying,
38:35
Speaker 1: go home, turn around, this is dangerous. And when I did,
38:38
Speaker 1: it was too late. And the moment I knew it
38:40
Speaker 1: was absolutely too late was the second I was in
38:44
Speaker 1: that car. I knew I was no longer in control
38:46
Speaker 1: of my life, and that every second counted and everything
38:51
Speaker 1: that I did would matter to get to that next second.
38:56
Speaker 1: Alicia with me, Alicia Kazakevitch, For those listeners that have
39:01
Speaker 1: not heard your story, please explain what happened to you
39:08
Speaker 1: and what could have happened to this little boy. I
39:11
Speaker 1: met somebody online who I thought was a friend. And
39:16
Speaker 1: this was really before there was there were any stories
39:20
Speaker 1: like mine to go off of. There was no internet
39:22
Speaker 1: safety education. There wasn't anything for my parents to talk
39:25
Speaker 1: about other than stranger danger. So I didn't have that
39:29
Speaker 1: knowledge that we had today. But I stepped outside to
39:33
Speaker 1: meet the person who had groomed me for about nine months,
39:37
Speaker 1: and I thought the person was my friend, and he
39:40
Speaker 1: kidnapped me. And he took me from my tips with
39:42
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania home to Virginia and helped me captive in his
39:45
Speaker 1: basement dungeon, and I was raped and beaten and tortured
39:50
Speaker 1: and kept chewing to the floor. Miraculously I was rescued
39:54
Speaker 1: because he was live streaming what he was doing to
39:57
Speaker 1: me to other people online, and somebody was able to
40:00
Speaker 1: recognize my faith in the missing poster as the little
40:03
Speaker 1: girl in this I read this video, put that together
40:06
Speaker 1: and called law enforcement, and I'm just I'm so lucky
40:09
Speaker 1: to be here, and with that second chance at life,
40:12
Speaker 1: I've devoted my existence, my life to keeping other children safe.
40:16
Speaker 1: I started speaking out when I was fourteen, and it's
40:22
Speaker 1: so awful that these stories are still happening. I knew
40:25
Speaker 1: back then that it would get worse. Back at no times,
40:28
Speaker 1: it was my space and there was barely WiFi, and
40:33
Speaker 1: you were attached to your computer at home. But now
40:36
Speaker 1: the predator has access to your child twenty four seven.
40:39
Speaker 1: So you have to be so much more vigilant, and
40:42
Speaker 1: children have to know to protect themselves too. Parents have
40:45
Speaker 1: to educate themselves and kids have to be educated on
40:48
Speaker 1: how to stay safe. And then also kids need to
40:51
Speaker 1: know that they can go to their parents for help
40:53
Speaker 1: without fear of punishment or having their device taken away.
40:56
Speaker 1: That it is about staying safe, that kids have that
41:00
Speaker 1: comfort and that ability to go to a trusted adult
41:03
Speaker 1: in real life, so a parent or guardian that they
41:06
Speaker 1: can go to for help. But we have to have
41:08
Speaker 1: these conversations. Yes, it's an uncomfortable conversation, but we already
41:11
Speaker 1: had so many uncomfortable conversations with children. This is just
41:14
Speaker 1: another one. Kids need to know what to protect themselves
41:17
Speaker 1: from because what you don't know can hurt you, and
41:21
Speaker 1: then you know about it. Alicia, when you tell me
41:23
Speaker 1: that story, it never fails to frighten me as a mom.
41:28
Speaker 1: We have Bark, and I am not a paid spokesperson
41:31
Speaker 1: in any sense, but I looked at all the alternatives
41:35
Speaker 1: and I just picked Bark because I didn't know what
41:36
Speaker 1: I was doing, and I like it. It alerts me
41:39
Speaker 1: on my phone every time an ugly word, even if
41:44
Speaker 1: it's just simply damn, pops up, anything about hit, punch, kick, afraid, cut,
41:53
Speaker 1: anything like that, even if it's in a song that
41:56
Speaker 1: they've heard or downloaded, I get an alert and then
42:01
Speaker 1: I go and I look at it and I see
42:03
Speaker 1: what it is. So far, it's been very innocent and benign,
42:08
Speaker 1: and I pray to God it stays that way. And
42:11
Speaker 1: Emerson ABC needs for CHARLESO. Where does the case stand now? Well,
42:15
Speaker 1: right now, what we're hearing right now is that they
42:18
Speaker 1: have a the Internet Crimes Against Children's Task Force. This
42:25
Speaker 1: is what I sort of gleaned from yesterday from the
42:27
Speaker 1: State Attorney General's office here in South Carolina. They are involved.
42:32
Speaker 1: It's called by KAK. They're involved because they had to
42:35
Speaker 1: tell me that because I wanted to interview them about
42:38
Speaker 1: just talking about it yesterday and they basically had to
42:41
Speaker 1: decline because they're part of the investigation now. So we
42:44
Speaker 1: know now that we've got that task force working on that.
42:47
Speaker 1: I've also been in touch with the FBI as well,
42:50
Speaker 1: and I haven't been able to confirm yet their involvement,
42:52
Speaker 1: but I would be shocked if they weren't. So that's
42:57
Speaker 1: where we think it's going right now. We've talked about
43:00
Speaker 1: to both sides of the police departments about this case.
43:04
Speaker 1: We know that they're investigating it, and boy, they're keeping
43:07
Speaker 1: their cards close to their chest right now. They even
43:10
Speaker 1: had the lead investigator for Charleston in the room as
43:14
Speaker 1: I was interviewing the police chief, because they did not
43:16
Speaker 1: want one thing to come out about that may tip
43:21
Speaker 1: this guy off and he was found out, or that
43:26
Speaker 1: there may be that this suspect could slip away from them.
43:31
Speaker 1: So they were like we that made me think they
43:33
Speaker 1: are close. I mean that just is my gut. I
43:36
Speaker 1: could be wrong, and I don't think I am, though,
43:38
Speaker 1: because I think there's just too many virtual clues on
43:41
Speaker 1: this side. Well and Emerson. If this little boy could
43:45
Speaker 1: find the guy's house two hundred plus miles away, I
43:49
Speaker 1: believe police can too. We wait as justice unfals. Nancy
43:54
Speaker 1: Grace Crime Story signing off goodbye friend,